Maryam, Muslim ibn Ibrahim, ʿAbd al-Ghaffar ibn Dawud al-Harrani, Sulayman ibn Harb, Abu Salamah al-Tabudhaki, Nuʿaym ibn Hammad, ʿAbd Allah ibn Salih—the scribe of al-Layth—Muhammad ibn Kathir, Musaddad ibn Musarhad, Abu Tawbah al-Halabi, ʿAbd Allah ibn Rajaʾ al-Ghudani, Abu Jaʿfar al-Nufayli, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Yahya ibn Maʿin, ʿAli ibn al-Madini, Ishaq ibn Rahwayh, Farwah ibn al-Maghraʾ, Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shaybah, Yahya al-Himmani, Sahl ibn Bakkar, Abu al-Rabiʿ al-Zahrani, Muhammad ibn al-Minhal, al-Haytham ibn Kharijah, and many others in the Two Sanctuaries, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, al-Jazirah, and the lands of Persia.
He composed a book entitled “Refutation of Bishr al-Marrisi” (1) and another entitled “Refutation of the Jahmiyyah,” both of which have reached us.
He learned the science of hadith and its underlying defects from ʿAli, Yahya, and Ahmad; he outstripped the scholars of his age, was passionately committed to the Sunnah, and possessed keen aptitude in debate.
Those who narrated from him include: Abu ʿAmr Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Hiri, Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Sarram (2), Muʾammal ibn al-Husayn, and Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Azhar,
(1) The work is a refutation of Bishr ibn Ghiyath al-Marisi, one of the ahl al-ra’y (the Hanafi rationalist school). Having studied jurisprudence under Abu Yusuf, al-Marisi later devoted himself to kalam (speculative theology) and went to extremes in declaring the Quran created. The present book is regarded as one of the finest and most useful writings in its field; however, it contains objectionable terms applied to God—such as jism (body), haraka (movement), makan (place) and hayyiz (spatial dimension)—see p. 379 ff. The author was led to these words by the vehemence of his rebuttal and his zeal to affirm the divine names and attributes that Bishr al-Marisi was denying; yet it would have been preferable for him to avoid them and to adopt the salaf methodology, restricting himself to what is affirmed in the Quran and the sound sunnah concerning the attributes. Imam al-Dhahabi comments on the book: “It includes remarkable debates with al-Marisi in which he goes to excess in affirmation; remaining silent about them is closer to the path of the salaf, past and present.”
(2) al-Sarram—with an open sad and a doubled ra’—is derived from the trade of selling sarm, the thick leather used for sandal soles (al-Lubab).